Update: It's also worth noting that EFCA supporters have engaged in a full-fledged campaign of deception. Someone should ask Senator Michael Bennet if he's buying it.
We know the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (aka card-check):
Deprives workers of a secret ballot in workplace elections, exposing them to intimidation
Imposes costly government bureaucratic intervention in private workplace negotiations
Threatens to cost our fragile national economy and hard-working Americans of many thousands of jobs
Now, thanks to a new report released by the Workforce Fairness Institute, we see more clearly and concretely the real beneficiaries of this three-headed monster legislation: … [Read more...]

Sound the alarm on Bill Ritter's re-election chances. Hard-core Democrats are swearing they're going to abandon ship, at least if you take the Dead Governors at their word.
But really, Ritter's sagging popularity is not exactly newsworthy for those who have been paying attention the past couple months or so.
The real reason I gave a link to Colorado Pols was the unintentional humor behind a new union political group aimed at challenging (or at least threatening) Colorado's incumbent Democratic governor:A group calling itself Labor Initiatives Against Ritter - or LIAR - has filed the paperwork needed with the Internal Revenue Service to begin raising money for political purposes.
Mark Johnson, an International Brotherhood of … [Read more...]

As the Grand Junction Sentinel reports today, the day of reckoning draws closer for Colorado Governor Bill Ritter to decide on the bad policy that is SB 180 -- a costly favor to Big Labor.
The Sentinel today also editorializes strongly against SB 180 -- using many of the same arguments I've brought forward before, and even one I haven't really emphasized:Strikes would be prohibited under the legislation, but there are no sanctions listed in the bill for those who violate the provision.
Now it would seem that Bill Ritter has an opportunity to start mending fences with folks on the Western Slope, where his popularity is low and heckling is a common greeting for him, by vetoing SB 180. He could listen to Grand Junction mayor Bruce Hill, … [Read more...]

Update, 10:00 AM: Labor Pains' Justin Wilson has a more thorough refutation of Big Labor's new report here.
In an effort to ramp up their efforts to pass the Employee Forced Choice Act (EFCA), Big Labor is touting a new report that suggests employers are rampantly breaking the law (PDF) during union organizing elections. The problem? The report's data all are based on interviews with union organizers -- hardly an unbiased source.
But anything goes. While Big Labor appeals to EFCA apologists who need rational cover with impressive-sounding reports, it seems they also think they must appeal to the populist masses of religious believers. So they have sent clergy member lobbyists to Washington, DC, to insist that card-check legislation is … [Read more...]

Liberal former U.S. Senator George McGovern smacks down Congressional Democrats again. Last year he spoke out against the so-called Employee "Free Choice" Act for depriving workers of the secret ballot. Yesterday McGovern explains in a Wall Street Journal op-ed why the binding arbitration provisions in the bill is equally bad:Currently, labor law maintains a careful balance between the rights of businesses, unions and individual employees. While bargaining power differs depending on individual circumstances, the rights of the parties are well balanced. When a union and a business enter negotiations, current law requires that both sides bargain "in good faith." … [Read more...]

A few months ago I told you about rumored plans that the Obama administration and new Labor Secretary Hilda Solis would relax financial disclosure rules for labor union leaders. Well, they are rumors no longer.
Listen to a new iVoices podcast I recorded with Scott Dilley about the federal disclosure rollback and what it means for workers:
Check out this detailed posting at Labor Pains to get a further flavor of the hypocritical complaints from union leadership.
The disclosure rollback is bad on another level, as well. As I wrote recently in the issue brief Setting the Standard for Pro-Worker Transparency (PDF), Colorado would do well to emulate the U.S. Department of Labor disclosure rules for its own public-sector unions. … [Read more...]

Big Labor is really bummed out today with the news that U.S. Senator Arlen Specter won't be backing their Orwellian-named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) (you can watch his floor speech here) -- at least for this year. No Republican votes (and many shaky Democrats) means union officials won't be able to invoke the 60 votes needed for cloture to take away workers' rights to the secret ballot and impose costly binding arbitration.
This has got to spell a little relief for Colorado's newly selected U.S. Senator Michael Bennet. EFCA has put Bennet in a bind, but if the political signals are clear that the legislation won't pass he might have the cover he needs. At this point, my guess is Bennet will take the path of least resistance within … [Read more...]

A new study released gives you one more reason to write your Congressman and Senators to tell them to vote No on the poorly-named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).
Economist Anne Layne-Farrar's quantitative analysis finds that "for every 3 percentage points gained in union membership through card checks and mandatory arbitration, the following year's unemployment rate is predicted to increase by 1 percentage point and job creation is predicted to fall by around 1.5 million jobs."
Let's simplify: EFCA (or union card-check legislation, if you prefer) will keep many, many Americans from a productive job and a paycheck - an especially devastating effect in the midst of our current economic turmoil. … [Read more...]

"And people wonder why union card-check legislation is such a problem for workers" Exhibit # 2863. From the Chicago Sun-Times (via The Union Label):[United Food and Commercial Workers staff employee Agnes Sobczyk] said she passed a letter to a co-worker detailing her concerns about State Rep. John Fritchey, the candidate the union has endorsed to replace [Rahm] Emanuel.
She passed the letter to her co-worker on Wednesday night and on Thursday morning, she said Union President Ron Powell called her into his office.
"He shoved this in my face and said, 'Explain this!'" she said. Sobczyk said she told Powell she was concerned about some stories she read about Fritchey and that she thought [Victor] Forys was a better candidate.
"Then I … [Read more...]

Yesterday the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Labor-Management Standards reported its 900th conviction of union leaders for criminal activity. From the press release:During the month, OLMS obtained three convictions, seven indictments and court orders of restitution totaling more than $80,000. The officeâ€™s totals for fiscal year 2008 (which ended on Sept. 30, 2008) are 102 convictions and 130 indictments, with restitution of more than $3.2 million. The bulk of the cases involved the embezzlement of union funds.
â€œThe triple-digit numbers of indictments and convictions obtained by OLMS in the 2008 fiscal year demonstrates that criminal activity in unions is still a major problem. This problem points to the critical role … [Read more...]